Aside from
For All Time style pessimism and insanity, is there anyway to have Britain take some form of action against the Irish Republic after the Troubles kick off?
So far, my only guess would be if someone sympathetic to the Nationalist cause became Taoiseach after Dev stepped down and tried to organise some sort of covert funding of the PIRA during the Summer of '69.
Que some fluke that get's Enoch Powell into power in the 70's (I'm not the expert on British politics here), and some flashpoint involving a secret SAS mission going horribly wrong or indeed horribly right.
Ta da, Ireland gets invaded by Enoch's Britain, God help us all
Of course this involves an unrealistic level of radicalism on both sides. History shows that the Irish people were too intrested on moving forward to cling to nationalism to such an extent that it would lead to war, not to mention that successive British governments have been more or less commited to dealing with Northern Ireland as quickly and painlessly as possible, except perhaps Thatcher but then again I tend to discount her from most things. However, is such a POD possible?
How would such a campaign pan out, what will be the international reaction? Britain after all is merely defending national interests and they do have proof of the Irish government funding and arming an illegal terrorist force which has been attacking British forces and civillians, that's a pretty justified cause for intervention of any sort. However, from the Irish perspective the government has been defending an oppressed minority who's only wish is for civil liberties equal to their British counterparts, and considering who's government is currently in charge of British policy in Northern Ireland, things will be a lot nastier for Nationalists than OTL.
Will America be pro or anti-British in this Irish campaign? What will be the opinion of the EEC, France, West Germany, the USSR, or indeed anyone?